As the axe blade tore through the bone, bright red blood splattered onto the nearby model, slowly flowing down.
The shop owner's head rolled on the ground until it hit the corner of the wall. His astonished expression was still on his face as he stared at Zhong Mu in disbelief, his body swaying.
"Why...why did you intentionally hurt me?!" The head that had fallen to the ground spoke. Its body was no longer moving, but the head was still conscious, loudly condemning Zhong Mu, "I kindly invited you in for a visit! You robbed me!! You even slashed me! Are you crazy?!"
His harsh tone made it seem as if Zhong Mu was a heinous criminal, while he, who had collected a room full of body parts, was just an ordinary person.
Zhong Mu didn't dare look at the headless body lying on the ground. Instead, he glanced at the head that had rolled to the corner of the wall, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to calm the trembling he felt in the face of the shattered body. Then, he mustered his courage, bent down, grabbed the body, and dragged it to the corner of the wall.
"What? Even if you give me back my body now, I still won't forgive you! I'll make you pay!" the shop owner yelled, about to lash out at Zhong Mu.
Then he saw Zhong Mu suddenly raise his axe and chop off his arm right in front of him.
"My hand!!" the shop owner screamed, "Don't cut my body! No!"
But Zhong Mu ignored him, not wanting to see the shattered corpse, so he simply closed his eyes, raised his axe, and started hacking wildly, hacking wherever he could.
The shop owner screamed incessantly, as if he remained conscious for a period of time after his head was severed from his body, but his screams disappeared in an instant.
Zhong Mu slowly opened his eyes a crack, secretly glancing at the bloody mess in front of him, then quickly turned his head away.
It seems that in this city, when someone's head is first chopped off, their consciousness is temporarily retained, but it disappears after a while. This is probably why the act of seeking limbs in the city also includes seeking heads.
If you want a nice head, all you have to do is cut off someone else's head, wait until that person loses consciousness, and then sew it back onto your own body.
That's probably how it is in this city.
If it were a manual head replacement... it would probably be done while the person is still conscious, quickly sewing the new head on.
Zhong Mu no longer knew what the residents of this city were like. In a city where all sorts of messy physical transactions were taking place, he didn't want to think about it anymore.
Looking at the assembled bodies outside, he couldn't think of anything else; all he needed to do was protect himself.
Zhong Mu wiped the blood off his face, then turned around to wipe his hands and the axe. After cleaning them up, he took the doctor's legs off the mannequin and wrapped them in red cloth.
As Zhong Mu reached the door, she glanced back at the puddle in the corner. Although it seemed unlikely to be mended and brought back to life, she was just in case…
Holding the axe and his bandaged legs, Zhong Mu stood at the entrance of the exhibition hall, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Limbs are being given away for free for a limited time! First come, first served!"
His shout immediately attracted the attention of countless people around him.
The exhibition hall features limbs? And they're being given away for free???
Isn't that the place with the best-looking limbs in the area? Are all those high-end limbs being given away for free?
A group of people, their eyes gleaming with greed, disregarded whether the news was true or not. Upon hearing the shouts, they rushed into the exhibition hall without hesitation and began looting, fearing that if they were a step too late, the good stuff would be someone else's.
Zhong Mu sidestepped the crowd rushing in, watching the chaos inside as countless people trampled and scrambled for loot. Reassured, he turned and quickly walked back.
With so many people looting inside, and all the limbs scattered among different people, there's no way they can be put back together.
Before returning to the area where the doctor was, Zhong Mu first took the axe and demanded needles and thread, then went to the clinic to get some anesthetic, painkillers, and water, before hurriedly heading back.
Sensing that the doctor's location hadn't changed and that his emotions remained calm, he relaxed slightly, but he still hurried back quickly until he saw the doctor's figure in front of the alley before he completely relaxed.
"You're back?" Hearing familiar footsteps approaching, Mu He looked up and asked softly, then smelled the strong scent of blood on Zhong Mu. "Are you injured?"
"No, it's not my blood." Zhong Mu shook his head, put down the things wrapped around his body, washed his hands first, then put the medicine into Mu He's mouth and fed him a sip of water, "Eat this, and it won't hurt anymore."
Mu He swallowed the medicine in his mouth and smiled helplessly, "I am a monster, human medicine has no effect on me."
Zhong Mu was taken aback. "What should we do then... the stitches will hurt a lot later."
"I can bear it." Mu He fumbled to lift up his trouser leg. "It won't hurt anymore once the flesh and bones have healed."
Zhong Mu stared blankly at the needle and thread in his hand, then glanced up and saw Mu He's bloody wound, and his hands began to tremble again.
"The doctor's leg was hacked into a jumbled mess..."
"It's okay, as long as it's sewn up, the missing parts will grow back." Noticing Zhong Mu's unease, Mu He raised her hand and beckoned, "Come here."
Zhong Mu, holding the needle and thread, leaned closer and rested her head against Mu He's outstretched hand.
Mu He patted Zhong Mu's head, then cupped his face in one hand and kissed his forehead soothingly. "Take your time stitching it up. No matter how it turns out, your leg will recover. Monsters are more resilient than you think. Don't treat me like a human."
Zhong Mu was still in a state of dizziness from seeing a broken body. He held the thread tightly, his brows furrowed, and tried his best to suture Mu He's wound.
He held his leg with one hand and the needle and thread with the other. After sewing a couple of stitches, he would look up at the sky to catch his breath, then grit his teeth and continue sewing.
Hearing Zhong Mu's increasingly disordered breathing, Mu He reached out and touched his sweaty cheeks. "You seem to be really afraid of incomplete human bodies."
"…Hmm." Zhong Mu took a deep breath and responded, "When I was very young, my parents would force me to look at anatomical diagrams of the human body, so I hated it."
"It's not just that, is it?"
The emotion he conveyed when he said this wasn't particularly strong.
"...and...let me...dissect my dead pet."
Zhong Mu took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "And that's just the beginning. After that, they'll bring back rabbits and frogs for me to operate on, saying it's for future practice."
"If I didn't want to, they would remain silent in the face of my resistance and would not cook for me until I gave in… So later I learned to take care of myself, cook, wash clothes, mend clothes, and so on."
He calmed down a bit after talking to Mu He about the past and continued to sew.
The white thread pierced the skin, embedded itself in the flesh, and was pulled out through the blood and flesh. The thread was stained bright red, as if Zhong Mu could see a sharp scalpel cutting through the skin and blood flowing. He immediately stopped what he was doing.
"It's okay. If it makes you uncomfortable to look at it, then you don't have to look. You can just sew it up however you like," Mu He said softly.
Zhong Mu withdrew his gaze from the sky to relieve his stress and turned to look at Mu He.
"Does the doctor know about desensitization therapy?"